CONAKRY, 13 February (IRIN) - President Lansana Conte imposed martial law in Guinea on Monday effectively blocking the few emergency agencies that were working to treat people wounded during one of the worst days of violence.

The Guinean Red Cross, which had been running the only ambulance service in the country during the protests in January and in the last three days, is now grounded by the curfew, Georg Cunz, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Guinea said on Tuesday.

"We are not able to operate today," said Cunz. "We are in negotiations with the army to try and get freedom of movement, but they have not yet agreed. We are all at home trying to find out what's happening," he said.

Cunz said 15 ICRC and Guinea Red Cross ambulances worked throughout the day in Conakry on Monday transporting hundreds of wounded to the city's dilapidated hospitals.

The Guinea Red Cross also operates in all 33 of Guinea's provinces.

Following the widespread looting and fighting on Monday, Conte made an address on national radio on Monday evening, saying those protestors calling for his resignation were, "sending Guinea into civil war".

He said the army would impose a strict curfew and that civilians would only be allowed to leave their houses between 4pm and 8pm. The military would also take control of all internal security, which is normally under the control of the police and gendarmerie, Conte said.

On Tuesday most of the streets in the capital Conakry and other towns were empty except for a heavy military presence. However in the morning there were some reports of clashes between youths and soldiers in some suburbs of Conakry, and later in the day in the provincial capital Labe in the centre of the country.

During the fighting on Monday, 245 wounded people arrived at Donka Hospital in Conakry, staff told IRIN. Media reports estimate that at least 20 people had been killed during the day.

Marie Jeanne Hautbois, head of the NGO Terres des Hommes, which is working to support Guinean staff at Donka, said conditions at the hospital are difficult but functional.

"The main problem is that most staff live in the suburbs and it's very difficult for them to come to work now," Hautbois said.

"The situation is difficult but the medical teams gained a lot of experience during last month's violence and have made preparations to organise themselves," Hautbois added.

However conditions in smaller hospitals in Conakry and elsewhere in the country could be worse, she said.

Guinea's hospitals are so run down that Guineans usually rely on their families to bring them food and to shop for drugs and even the surgical equipment doctors need to treat them. Family members are often called on to donate blood for their relatives.

Many of the wounded at Donka came unaccompanied and are being treated with medical kits and supplies relief organizations provided during and after January's violence, Hautbois said.

Also on Tuesday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that 550 metric tonnes of food worth more than US $350,000 was looted on Saturday and Monday from WFP warehouses in Labe and Kankan, and the WFP's representative in Kankan had been evacuated to Mali after stone-throwing youths attacked the WFP compound.

WFP had suspended its operations in Guinea the week earlier, a statement said.

The US Embassy flew a plane with 25 non-essential embassy staff and expatriates from Conakry to Dakar on Tuesday, but in a public alert to its citizens resident in Guinea said it was not conducting an evacuation.

mc/nr/dh

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